Designing Google

Whenever I come across something interesting that I think might be a good blog topic, I tuck it away in the back of my mind, for those "slow news days." A couple of weeks ago, I discovered Google Artist Themes, which I thought would make a decent future blog post.

Good thing I saved it; this Sunday's Times Magazine had a blurb by Virginia Heffernan about how you too, can unleash your inner graphic designer and use Artist Themes to customize your Google home page (among other things--my mind began to wander once I got to the part where she painstakingly color coordinated an online user group page).

Just as I was hanging it up as an aspiring stereo expert, I perceived a new skill set taking shape, one that eclipsed my old sound geekery. Graphic design! Sure, I can’t write any actual code or even do much with HTML, but the finish work on my technology now consumes days. I customize everything with colors and fonts and photos and choices of backgrounds, wallpaper, screen savers. It’s like decorating my 10th-grade notebook with stickers of Rossignol and Vuarnet logos, as well as cryptic verse from Edie Brickell — all meant to suggest both a rich interior life and an intimacy with high-end brands.

So last month, when Google unveiled in Manhattan its new “artist themes” — colors and patterns created by a range of celebrities, with which to decorate an iGoogle homepage — I earnestly browsed as I have never done at MoMA.

I was just as excited when I clicked on the Artist Themes link, and was taken to a page of "artists and innovators". Of course, my inner Carrie Bradshaw immediately gravitated towards Diane von Furstenberg and Dolce and Gabbana, but then Tory Burch caught my eye and I knew the search for the perfect background was over: I'm a sucker for Tory Burch. I love the bold graphic design of her patterns and colors. I find it incredibly refreshing, that in a fashion world where something is always "the new black," Tory has separated herself from the crowd by designing with so much color (well, that and her T pattern rocks my socks. And the Reva Ballerina Flats, can't forget those).

But back to Google... there's something for everyone; heck, even the Wiggles have their own theme (something that tells me that falls under the category of "innovators"). Truth be told, I barely use iGoogle; but the few times a month I do end up there, I smile to myself every time a different Tory Burch pattern comes up on my screen--as if my computer wasn't designer enough.